Social Media Accessibility
Various social media platforms provide built-in ways to make your posts more accessible to the visually and/or audibly impaired.
In 2016 Twitter created a feature that allows users to add captions to images that are tweeted. However, users must manually enable the feature. Here is how to turn on the image caption feature:
When logged into your account, click 鈥渟ettings and privacy.鈥� Click 鈥淎ccessibility鈥� and toggle on 鈥淐ompose image descriptions.鈥�
By toggling on 鈥渃ompose image descriptions,鈥� users have the ability to describe images for the visually impaired.
Once a user turns on this feature, each time a user uploads any image to Twitter the user will have the opportunity to click 鈥渁dd description鈥� on the image. Users can add a description, also known as alt text, to images on desktop (Twitter.com) and Twitter鈥檚 mobile app. The feature is not available on third-party apps like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.
For videos, Twitter does not provide a way for users to add captions after a video is posted. However, users can add a description (200-character limit) of a video. Upload a video directly to Twitter using either Twitter.com on desktop or studio.twitter.com. Once the video is uploaded, users can type in a video description. On studio.twitter.com, a user can click 鈥淪ubtitles鈥� and add an .SRT file. Please note this functionality is only available to users on Twitter.com desktop and studio.twitter.com. It is not available on Twitter鈥檚 mobile app or any third-party app.
Add captions to all videos posted natively to Facebook. Here is how: once a user uploads a video directly to Facebook and publishes it, click 鈥淓dit Video.鈥� Then click 鈥淐aptions.鈥�
Once a user clicks 鈥淐aptions,鈥� here are two ways in which to add captions. The first is by uploading an .SRT file that a user must generate (can use Notepad on PC or TextEdit on Mac). The second is by clicking 鈥淕enerate.鈥� Facebook will then generate captions for the user. However, many times the captions will be incorrect and will require manual editing. When finished editing, click 鈥淪ave鈥� at the bottom. The video will now have captions.
Even if users cannot provide captions during Facebook Live videos, once the video is archived users can follow the same instructions for generating captions. Simply click 鈥淓dit video鈥� and generate and edit captions.
Another way to ensure accessibility on Facebook is by adding descriptive text to all posted images. When users upload two or more photos in a Facebook post (including a photo gallery), it is imperative that users click 鈥淎dd a description鈥� and provide alt text of each image.
It is imperative to add a caption to each Instagram post to ensure accessibility. The character limit on Instagram captions is 2,200, so there is ample space to describe the image or video uploaded by the user. However, it is best practice to be as concise as possible, so users should keep that mind.
YouTube
Similar to Facebook, YouTube provides automatic captioning for uploaded videos that are less than 10 minutes in length. However, it is imperative users edit captions after using this feature because, like Facebook, the captions are often incorrect. In addition, users can upload an .SRT file to add captions to YouTube videos. Once logged into the YouTube account, users click Creator Studio > Video Manager > Videos. Find the correct video and click 鈥淓dit.鈥� Select 鈥淪ubtitles/CC鈥� and click 鈥淎dd new subtitles or CC鈥� button.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns with accessibility in social media, please contact social media team members within the 海角社区 Division of Strategic Communications.